I Was Once the Spazzy Sister

Friday night at 8:30 or so I arrived at my sister's house. C lives approximately 3 hours away from me, in a small town on the Connecticut/New York state line. To get to her house I have to leave Rhode Island and cross the entire state of Connecticut. But half way there, in Cromwell, CT, there is a Dairy Queen that is always worked into my itinerary as I travel to and from C's house.

When I arrived, C and her boyfriend were in the kitchen having some wine and preparing the food for my niece's confirmation the next day. Her two oldest children, my 15 and 13 year old nieces, were out, and C's 10 year old and 5 year old were watching a Bond movie. I helped C in the kitchen as she had wine. At 11 or so her girls got home. She grabbed her coat and said "OK, we're going out. Let's go! Let's go! Let's GO!" We hopped into my car and headed to a bar.

At 1:30 we got home. I only had 1 beer, C had a glass of wine at the bar which added to the wine she'd already had at home. I hauled my tired self out of bed at 8 or so in the morning. C was already up. She'd already run 4 miles that morning, dropped her son off at basketball, took her daughter to the hairdresser, and was cooking for Saturday night's party. The itinerary for the day included finishing up the food, cleaning the house, picking up the 13 year old from the hairdresser, bringing the 15 year old to get her hair done, picking up the boy from basketball, going to boyfriend's house to iron a shirt, fixing the piano bench, sweeping out the garage, and a zillion other things. (Luckily Dad arrived early, so he fixed the piano bench. Dad's wife helped with the food, while I cleaned the house. )

"Beej, oh my God we have so much to do!" she whirled around the kitchen, gesturing wildly.

"Aw come on. We have 3 more hours. It'll get done. You cook, I'll clean, it's all good," I said reassuringly.

And of course it did come together. The house was clean, the food prepared and presented beautifully. Guests arrived and I filled their hands with drinks. C's house was full of people mingling, laughing and having a great time.

After my niece's confirmation we all returned to the house to sit around C's kitchen table to drink and to poke fun at C. We stayed up until roughly 2-3 in the morning. In the morning I heard C's footsteps walk down the stairs, and the front door open. C was out for her morning jog, after downing some ridiculous quantity of wine the night before. She dropped the 13 year old off for indoor soccer, taught Sunday school, returned and cooked breakfast for the 10 and 5 year old. Shortly after breakfast her boyfriend arrived, and they went for a hike just after I left for the 3 hour drive back to Rhode Island.

It used to be that people said that of the two of us, I had a lot of energy. But watching her in action exhausts me.